Aitor Karanka is the third favourite amongst the bookies to take over at Rangers.
By the latter days of Aitor Karanka’s four-year spell in charge of Middlesbrough, the Riverside fanbase was almost split down the middle between those who wanted him to be given more time and those who felt that time had long since ran out.
Karanka deserved immense credit for leading Boro back to the Premier League after seven years away in 2016/17, finishing runners-up in the Championship behind Burnley.
But once the whistle blew on the first day of the top flight season, it became clear that Boro, under Karanka’s restrictive tactics, were always going to be fighting against the tide.
By March, with Boro unable to make any sort of an impression on the top flight, Karanka was gone. And when the North Eastern outfit were relegated to the Championship at the end of the season, they went with the league’s tenth best defensive record but with the poorest goals tally in the top flight.
All of this, then, is food for thought for a managerless Rangers. Sky Bet have installed Karanka as the 7/1 third-favourite to take over at Ibrox.
And while the Spaniard would surely tighten up Rangers’ leaky backline, the fact that Boro supporters were so divided by Karanka’s sacking suggests that he would be far from a universally popular appointment at Ibrox.
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